Women's Water Polo Announces 2019 Slate

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WASHINGTON - George Washington women's water polo unveiled its 2019 schedule Thursday, highlighted by three home games against Collegiate Water Polo Association foes at Charles E. Smith Center Pool.

The Colonials head into the spring paced by three returners who scored at least 20 goals in 2018, including All-CWPA Second Team pick Alana Ponce, plus top goalkeeper Samantha Runyon. They're set to kick off their 18-game regular season Feb. 9 with a pair of contests at the Princeton Invitational.

"We're excited to get started," said head coach Barry King, who enters his second season after leading the Buff and Blue to their best winning percentage in five years in 2018. "We have a young group without any seniors that will have a great opportunity to grow together this spring.

"The goal, as always, is to keep getting better throughout the season to be playing our best water polo when we get to CWPA play and the conference championship."

After beginning the season with matchups against St. Francis Brooklyn and Iona at Princeton's DeNunzio Pool, GW travels to Marist's Red Fox Invitational for four games over two days Feb. 23-24. The Colonials' opponents that weekend include a pair of squads that finished last spring ranked in the CWPA national poll in host Marist and Brown.

GW returns to Princeton on March 9 for its CWPA opener against the Tigers before spending Spring Break in California with games at Cal State-East Bay (March 12), Fresno State (March 13) and Fresno Pacific (March 14).

The Colonials host a full weekend of action March 30-31 with six total games at Smith Center Pool. The Buff and Blue will participate in three of them with home matchups against Bucknell (10 a.m.) and Harvard (1 p.m.) on Saturday and an 11:30 a.m. start against St. Francis (Pa.) on Sunday.

Then, CWPA play ramps up with a trip to Harvard, where GW will face the host Crimson (April 6) and Bucknell (April 7). The Colonials close the regular season the following weekend at Bucknell with conference contests against Brown, St. Francis (Pa.) and Michigan.

After that, the Buff and Blue will have two weeks to prepare for the CWPA Championship, which will feature all seven conference members at Brown's Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center in Providence, R.I. competing for an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.